Fading Carol
by OtterAndTerrier
Summary: ‘Well, cheer up, Sev! Christmas is ahead!’ The boy swallowed and left the empty plate on the floor. ‘Precisely.’ ‘That’s not meant to be a reason for your mood!’ Lily said, puzzled. Lily/Severus Christmas one-shot


Surprise! Not a Ron and Hermione story this time! I was struck by inspiration as I listened to Last Christmas by Glee cast... what a lovely version! I've never written anything about Severus Snape and Lily Evans, despite I've had a lovely idea in mind for a while... will write it down someday!

So, as I said, I wanted to give these two a lovely white Christmas, despite whatever happened later. I am aware of that the conclusion isn't the best and happiest, but... well, it's kind of accurate, I think. Please let me some reviews on how did you like it ^^

Thanks again to my friend **Lisa **from Veritaserum Forums, Twitter, Skype, MSN... She's an amazing beta and Sevvy lover!! 3

On a title explanation, it's because their story is truly like a long forgotten song, and since it's Christmas... a carol is right :D

This is about their 5th year at Hogwarts. I reckon just after this happens the infamous scene that caused Harry so much pain.

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the following characters, places, names or magical references; it all belongs to JK Rowling and I do not gain more that entertainment with this.**

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**Fading Carol**

A sweet smell of chocolate sneaked through the tapestry and filled the concealed passageway where a lanky boy was scribbling, bent over, on a thick book. His wand was lying at his side, and he looked up at the presence of the intruder.  
'I brought you some pudding. It tastes heavenly today!' said the girl with a bright smile.  
The boy kept staring at her for a few seconds, but then he looked away, as in embarrassment for having been found there.  
'You didn't have to.'  
'But you left before the desserts!' she retorted in complaint, and then she sat down next to the boy. He swiftly closed the book and tucked it behind him, between the wall and his back.  
At last he took the plate with the delicious-looking piece of pudding that his friend had not taken away from the front of his face, forcing him to accept it.  
He ate in silence. Lily, however, would not keep holding back her tongue.  
'Tell me, tell me: how do you like it?'  
'It's good,' replied Severus, giving her a short smile.  
'Just "good"?' Lily claimed in disappointment.  
Severus only said quietly, 'Your friends must be worried about you.'  
'You're my friend, Sev.'  
'I was talking of your other friends.'  
'My "other" friends have no reason to be worried about me at all. And they can do without me, you know,' Lily told him firmly. As Severus ate the remainder of the pudding, with an impassive air, Lily smiled again and exclaimed, 'Well, cheer up, Sev! Christmas is ahead!'  
The boy swallowed and left the empty plate on the floor. 'Precisely.'  
'That's not meant to be a reason for your mood!' Lily said, puzzled. 'Unless… you're not coming back home this year?'  
'Been considering it,' he mumbled, avoiding her suspicious gaze.  
'But think of it. Christmas is a time to be with family. Here you'd be alone… Is it so bad to return for a few weeks?'  
'Let me see. My mother and I will be locked up in the house, have a miserable dinner, then Tobias will come home drunk, singing rude Muggle carols…' Severus replied bitterly.  
Lily was pressing her mouth with her knuckles.  
'Why don't you and your mom go to your grandparents?' she asked him.  
'Because then Tobias would get mad at her leaving him alone and…' Severus became silent.  
Lily looked tenderly at him for a moment, then she piped up, 'You've got to go home. For your mom. And we will meet to wish each other a Merry Christmas. You could ask McGonagall to let you return earlier to Hogwarts. Please.'  
Dark eyes met the deep green ones. Severus cheeks gained some colour and he nodded.  
'Yes!' Lily exclaimed, happy. 'Now let's go to bed, we're leaving tomorrow.'

It had stopped snowing, but the air was so cold that the steam of the passers-by's breathing might have turned into chunks of ice as they rushed from house to house to give and receive season's greetings.  
Lily furiously rubbed her gloved hands against each other, in an attempt to warm them up. She looked so pale that her hair stood out more than usual, a red flame on the dimly lit porch.  
At last, a scarcely overcoated figure appeared at the end of the street, holding a brown package.  
Lily beamed and ran to hug him as soon as Severus stepped on the pavement of her house.  
'Merry Christmas, Sev! I thought you weren't coming! What delayed you?'  
'Problems at home,' he grunted. 'I had to wait until my mother went to bed.'  
The girl bit her lip, trying to relieve the weight in her heart whenever she thought of her friend's misery.  
'I'm sorry. Here, your present.'  
She handed him a rather big parcel, wrapped up in red paper. Severus unwrapped it carefully, and discovered a brand-new copper cauldron, with marks of runes on the circumference.  
Lily, you didn't have to buy me something this big! he complained, mouth-hanging.  
'I didn't have to, I wanted to. I engraved the runes myself. It's an ancient poem,' Lily told him, pleased with herself. She knew her friend hardly ever had new items, and his current cauldron had started to leak. 'Despite I would have been right in getting you a thick coat! Let's get inside. Don't worry, Petunia and my parents have gone to bed!' she hurried to add. 'They let me wait for you.'  
They walked into the sitting room, where multi-coloured electric lights sparkled from a big tree and a fire kept the house warm.  
Lily took off gloves and coat; under it she was wearing a hand-knit sweater, a skirt with wool tights and slippers.  
'Merry Christmas,' said Severus at last, holding out his small present to Lily. 'I hope you will enjoy it.'  
Lily sat on the floor and eagerly took the wrapping off and held the content on the palm of her hand. It was a small Christmas crystal ball, and its insides showed a white land, with a frozen lake, a few mountains on the horizon and a replica on scale of the Hogwarts castle. The fake snow fell constantly but never piled up.  
'Sev, this is-' began Lily, but he cut her off, impatient to see her whole reaction, 'Now turn it down.'  
When she did so, her delighted expression changed to wonder. The white grounds turned green, the lake rippled, reflecting a blue sky, and the snow disappeared: now an infinite rain of pale red petals fell from the domed crystal.  
'Oh my goodness, Severus, I've got no words for this,' said Lily, marvelled.  
'Now that is a surprise,' smirked Severus, who had sat beside her. Ignoring that, Lily threw her arms around his neck. 'Thank you,' she whispered. 'It's the best present ever.'  
'Then the months working on it were worth it,' he declared satisfied when she released him.  
'What? You made it?' Lily widened her eyes in astonishment at Severus' abilities. He nodded. 'And it took you months? For me?'  
'Well,' Severus cleared his throat, uncomfortable. 'Just a couple of months, not too much, really…'  
Lily shook her head.  
'You're amazing.'  
They chatted for a while, facing the fire, but later they fell silent, lost in the crackling, rustling and popping that came from the house and outside.  
Lily yawned and leant back on the couch behind her, closing her eyes.  
'I probably should go and see if everything's alright at home,' said Severus in a low voice.  
'You have to?' asked Lily with her eyes still closed.  
Severus did not answer.  
'I don't get it. Why doesn'tyour mom do something about it? Why doesn't she moves to another place, or with your grandparents?'  
He sighed heavily.  
'Believe me, I've asked her so a thousand times.'  
'And…?'  
'She manages to elude my questions. Changes of subject or gives unintelligible answers. I think - despite it's unimaginably ridiculous - that she still has feelings for him. It revolts me, it can't be taken by reason,' Severus spat out.  
'I think that's called love, Sev,' whispered Lily quietly. Severus did not look at her immediately, and when he did, he noticed her breathing had changed. She was asleep.  
Was she right? Love, what his mother felt for a man that little cared about his wife and son, a man that yelled at them and disrespected them? That simply could not be possible. Except that love has reasons which reason cannot understand, or at least that was what some said.  
There he was, staring thoughtfully at Lily and pondering about the nature of people's feelings, when the dark red hairs slid sideways to his shoulder and brushed his chin.  
Outside, it started to snow.

The Christmas ornaments were missing from the ancient walls by the time the carriages left Lily and many other fellow students at the doors of the castle. She had spent all the way to Hogwarts catching up with her friends; hence that, as soon as she could, Lily searched the castle for the only person she had not seen at all.  
'Evans! Here, Evans!' called a more than unpleasant voice behind her, on top of the marble staircase. She pretended not to hear it, but not so long after, a boy with glasses, a messed tuft of black hair and a presumptuous smile stepped in front of her.  
'Mind your way, Potter, you're blocking mine,' Lily told him through gritted teeth.  
'Oi, I only wanted to ask you if you had a good holiday!' James tried to assuage her.  
'What a considerate little gentleman!' laughed Lily in scorn. 'I'm afraid that's not your business. Now, if you don't mind…'  
Lily skirted around him and James did not stop her, but he shouted to her, 'I've got some leftover mistletoe in my pocket, if you want to snog me so badly!'  
Lily turned furiously red and kept walking without looking back,. Nevertheless, Severus was nowhere to be seen. It was only at dinner when she spotted him, despondently, sitting at the Slyhterin table, despite his eyes were always fixed anywhere away from Lily.  
The desserts had barely appeared, when Severus left the table. Without reluctance, Lily followed him at a certain distance, but rushed after him when Severus sneaked through the tapestry leading to his favourite hiding place.  
'Why are you avoiding me, Severus Snape?' demanded Lily when he turned around, wand in hand, startled at her bursting in behind him. His face, however, looked stony at once and he lowered his wand.  
'You should know, Lily Evans.'  
'I should know what?' she replied outraged. 'I haven't heard from you since Christmas, and now I come back wanting to see you and-'  
'We had agreed to return to Hogwarts last week,' Severus let out at last. 'I f you wanted to see me, you would have fulfilled your promise. But I've been here since then, and didn't see you around. You don't have to raise objections-'  
'I don't have any objections, the truth is that my parents were really happy to have me back!' pleaded Lily. 'It was Christmas! They weren't keen on letting me go, when we had all the rest of the family there. I thought you'd understand!'  
Severus looked back at her without yielding.  
'You shouldn't have promised anything to me, then.'  
'I didn't imagine I couldn't come sooner! You know how much I care about family, I didn't imagine it'd be such a big deal!'  
'My mother is dead,' Severus said in a voice that was not ragging, but colder than ever. 'If you hadn't thought a silly promise couldn't mean anything, you would have understood why I needed a friend here.'  
Lily looked horrified, and the tears that had not appeared in Severus' eyes were leaking from hers.  
'I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. How–? What–?'  
'Tobias,' he answered curtly.  
Lily did not want him to go into details, but she asked, 'What's happened to him?'  
'Gone,' he said with a hateful expression.  
Lily widened her eyes: he couldn't - he wouldn't have-  
'You think I killed him, don't you?' he questioned her, incredulously but at the same time as if he was expecting that reaction from her. Lily tried to deny; he cut her off.  
'He was drunk, and ran away. The Ministry of Magic sent for him and handed him in to the Muggles authorities. I found my mother when I got back from your house.'  
He stayed scrutinizing her.  
'Out of all the people, Lily, you…'  
'I'm really sorry, Sev, I would never think you'd do something so horrible, it's only that- you've got bad influences, I've told you-' Lily apologised.  
'This is not what I need right now,' he growled.  
'I try to offer you some comfort, you reject it; I don't know what it is that you need!' she now had fresh tears in her eyes.  
'I don't need you to think I'm a murderer!' Severus shouted at her. 'No, I didn't kill the Muggle scoundrel of my father. But I hope the Death Eaters will run into him.'  
And with that, he left the passageway.  
Lily sat on the stone floor and cried.


End file.
